Different types of pedestrian traffic signal systems are known in the art for facilitating pedestrian movement across pedestrian crosswalks on the streets. These systems allow a pedestrian to actuate the pedestrian signal by operating a switch to bring the flow of traffic to a halt and to permit her to cross the street safely. To make the pedestrian signal systems accessible and user friendly to the physically challenged pedestrians, various attempts have been made in the past. However, there was no pedestrian push button system available which could be activated from a distance. As a solution to this problem, a wireless push button device i.e. a remote for pedestrian crosswalk signal system was invented that was capable of making request for registration of pedestrian signal from a distance and for giving alert to the users of the remote to confirm WALK/DON'T WALK in the form of audible, tactile and visual signals. This wireless push button device for pedestrian crosswalk signal system is disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 8,786,466 issued Jul. 22, 2014 to the inventor and applicant of this present application. FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary architecture of this invention 100. The receiver 102 of this invention cooperates with the existing traffic signal system 110 to enable a wireless device i.e. a remote 106 to initiate the activation of the pedestrian crosswalk signal system from a distance. The receiver 102 works in conjunction with the existing push button 108. When a button provided in the remote 106 is pressed it sends value of an angle of orientation of the remote with respect to the desired crosswalk direction. A compass included in the remote 106 calculates this angle value.
To provide the visually and/or hearing impaired pedestrians the same kind of facilities as those provided by the above mentioned wireless push button even without possessing the remote push button, an accessible pedestrian system 122, reference to system 120 shown in FIG. 1B, was invented. This integrated accessible pedestrian system is disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 9,672,732 issued Jun. 6, 2017 to the inventor and applicant of this present application. Here also, the remote 128 (i.e. wireless push button 128) depends on the compass provided in the remote to calculate the angle value for the direction in which the remote is held.
In both the above-mentioned systems, determination of the angle of orientation of the remote, with respect to a particular crosswalk direction, is crucial while making a request for activation of a pedestrian signal as the decision taken by the receiver to register such request for activation of a pedestrian signal gets influenced by the angle of orientation of the remote. Also, in the Integrated Accessible Pedestrian System mentioned above, the remote, with the help of the compass, assists a user in maintaining a correct path when the user walks through a crosswalk. Thus, accuracy of the angle value measured by the compass included in the remote has to be very high to make the system reliable. But, commercially available compasses may not give such accurate results. Also, a compass angle value measurement may get influenced by external factors such as static permanent magnetism, static induced magnetism etc.
Thus, there exists a need for a wireless push button which can perform its functions without depending on the angle of orientation measured by the compass.